Club World Cup: in Charlotte many Italians Tano Inter

Charlotte’s first Italian is a man with black and white mustache: if the Bank of America is located here, and there is no corner of the city that does not remember it, everything is due to this Amadeo Pietro Giannini, who is the American Dream person. He was an Italian-American banker of Ligurian origins, born in San Jose, California, in 1870, but the son of Ligurian immigrants: as a merchant, the next intuition was founded in 1904 the Bank of Italy in San Francisco, which then became the Bank of America in 1930, the Institute that now made Charlotte rich and made it the second financial district of the country after New York. Even today Giannini is remembered as a pioneer who made the banking services accessible to ordinary people, in an era in which they only served and only the rich. If he is a father of modern finance, he is also because immigrants promoted loans, such as those who arrived from the Bel Paese a century ago, so different from the Italians who still populate this city in very strong growth today: Charlotte has, in fact, a favorable taxation regime and attracts investments also from Italy. And patience if it is whipped by the heat and lightning during the summer, as the teams playing the FIFA World Championship well know. The Italians of North Carolina, who welcomed Inter here with the laurels of the case, see them all lined up outside a hotel in Uptown, the central and commercial area where the Nerazzurri prepared the challenge to the Fluminense. Piccolo Emanuele, for example, for a day waited for non -successful sticks. Next to him a boy candidly admits to cheer Juve: no heresy, in this case, has more patriotism and a little pride in seeing a big one of our ball at these heights.

tricolor at the stadium

–

The animator of the entire local community, named Marco Carbone, managed to take a photo with Cristian Chivu and his collaborator, Angelo Palombo. Tuscan of Massa with Calabrian origins, Carbone left the hometown in 2013 with a couple of suitcases to pursue the American dream and, above all, the future American wife. On the day of the 40th birthday he moved to Manhattan, but for 13 years he has been here in North Carolina: he also has two children, Luca and Matteo, very fans of the local team, Charlotte FC. In general, football is the glue for these people, just under 10,000 Italians residing in the state, of which about 2000 in the Charlotte metropolitan area alone. The work of the “House of Italian Culture North Carolina”, the so-called CCI-NC, a non-profit organization whose mission is also united by promoting it is to promote development, technology, language and Italian culture in the area, always integrating with the premises. Carbone is in the board of the association-the President of the CCI-NC is Valentina Cecchi, the honorary console for Italy in North Carolina-and, from this position, over time he managed to bring the tricolor to the Bank of America Stadium, where Inter-Fluminense is played: “Since the MLS and local security regulations prohibit forms of choreography in the stadiums, to give visibility to our community I have decided Recreet the Italian flag in the stands during a game – says Carbone – I printed green, white and red shirts for 250 people, sitting together the glance was … patriotic “.

statues and plates

–

Here once he trained Christian Lattanzio, in the past in the coaching team of Roberto Mancini at the City: he was the technical of Charlotte FC from May 2022 to October 2023 with a lot of historical qualification for the playoffs. It was not enough, the most photographed work of art in the city illustrated Italian hand: “The great album” of Arnaldo Pomodoro, a genius just who disappeared, is a bronze sculpture installed on October 2, 1974, the oldest of Charlotte. You can see it at the trafficted crossroads between Trade Street and Tryon, near the headquarters of the Bank of America: always there, the city bank, we return. And to the ball, sacred for Italians even more when they leave home. For example, Stefano Gaggero, Genoese who has lived in Charlotte for 13 years, is so fan of the Griffin that he has a personalized car plaque with “Genoafc” written. He also created a podcast entitled that it is all a program: “Genoani is left”, hosts Genoa fans residing around the world. For him, the Inter arrived up to North Carolina is only a background noise, other feelings, however, tries Stefano Brigliadori, 59 years old since 2005. He has worked at the American Airlines at Charlotte airport and he too has a personalized license plate: “Acmilan Filo with Italy” reads. The Interists are there and even several: Antonello Divittorio is a 42 -year -old originally from Mola di Bari, lives in Raleigh, 2 and a half hours from Charlotte, but waiting for the game he does not move from the position conquered in front of the Nerazzurri hotel. “I always carry with me, my son Francesco: ours is a family faith, he started from my grandfather who supported Herrera’s Inter,” he says. Gian Marco Tamburi, who has lived in Lenoir since 2007, has his heart divided: he was born in Perugia, he can only have nostalgia of the Curi stadium, but in his case there is an evident Interista sympathy. He studied American history and teaches in a high school, not only on books, but also on a field: he is a Football coach, another great passion.

But football certainly does not forget it: “For us it is much more than a sport -continues Tamburi -, being physically so far from Italy, this game for our community is a way to remain culturally attached to our country. So also through games seen together at the table, churned out and controversial we feel like we were at the country bar. Perhaps this is the only piece of our life in the USA and we still are totally Italian and remains totally Italian and remains to be totally Italian and remains totally Italian. We also jealously “. Growing up will also learn Emanuele, who seems to have clear ideas and is also quite happy: mom Luana brought it to the training center and there, yes, that the photo with sticks has finally taken.